


you need to hear it in Latin?

by fairydustedtheory



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alternate Universe, Dead Languages, Emissary Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Derek Hale, Secret Crush, Sleep talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29442837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairydustedtheory/pseuds/fairydustedtheory
Summary: Stiles talks in his sleep and Derek needs to know what he's saying.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 6
Kudos: 184
Collections: Sterek Valentine Week





	you need to hear it in Latin?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luvs_sterek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvs_sterek/gifts).



> Written for Sterek Valentine Week, Theme "Secret Crush" and for Bree who is a sweet little Valentine baby, Happy Birthday!!  
>    
> It started as your prompt about Derek learning Latin to help Stiles but then my brain just changed it all around into this??? I don't know. I hope you still like it a little bit.
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](https://fairydustedtheory.tumblr.com/tagged/plot%20twist%20:%20i%20write)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Stiles has been sleeping at the loft more often than not.

Derek was unclear about when it actually started. Maybe it was the first time they all got poisoned and collapsed after that fight with a Fae queen. 

It hadn’t been weird then, they were all there together as a pack. As they should be. And Derek had found comfort in that. He sort of enjoyed that, poisoning aside.

But it happened again.

Again and again. 

Derek had agreed that Stiles be the pack’s emissary. Stiles was busy here until late, it made sense to not wake him up when he fell unconscious over his laptop or some books. 

Derek had a heart deep down, having Stiles here wasn’t so bothersome.

Then, it was like it became a habit, Derek had to admit at one point that Stiles had been sleeping here most nights.

It was maybe too big of a commitment to have Stiles be the emissary. He was new at all this magic thing. It was maybe too much for Stiles or too much for Derek but it had been done. The word _yes_ had fallen out of Derek’s mouth like a stream springs from the Earth and runs down the hill. Something symbolic like that that Derek refused to think about.

Everything was still falling into place for them all, for Stiles. It was a bit scary to discover such power hidden in the young man. Derek’s chest was filled with awe and a little bit of fear underneath it.

It all turned wrong when Stiles started talking in his sleep.

More than he usually did, that was. It happened every night now. Not just when he was really stressed or when he was, God forbid, horny. The betas were still giving him hell for the time he mumbled ‘please take me now’ while sleeping sprawled on the couch that one time they all had gotten drunk on some magic potion to see if they could. 

The pang in Derek’s chest at the thought of Stiles dreaming about someone had been unexpected. He didn’t want to think about that either.

No, it wasn’t that. Derek could deal with that.

It was different now. Stiles mumbled in his sleep, almost as soon as he was asleep he was mumbling, his voice becoming sleep-thick as the hours passed, sounding like himself but also other.

Sounding far away while he was just right there, speaking in tongues. 

_“Sapere aude.”_

Derek knew this language, he had heard Stiles using spells enough time to recognize the flow of it, and he knew enough Spanish to recognize the Latin language without having to give it a second thought. 

But something was wrong. Something was tugging at Derek’s heart, uneasy and somewhat painful in the way it kept him awake all night, laying there very still in his bed while Stiles was on the couch in the living room.

Something was wrong like the world had flipped on its axis and everything was upside down or turned over in a million different ways. 

The thing was that Derek felt something. It was hard to put words to it but he _felt_.

He was not great with feelings, not great at all, not accustomed to many of them except guilt and anger and grief. He was getting better with calm and joy these days with the betas and the pack growing together and Stiles being there as an emissary keeping the bonds stronger and healthier. 

But this one feeling, Derek had buried deep and he just couldn’t recognize it. 

It felt like too much and empty all at once.

_“Semper ad meliora.”_

Everything felt out of place, everything from the cotton of the sheets sticking to his skin, the way the light of the moon flew through the window in a way that used to be comforting but was just not right now. 

It wasn’t the first time Stiles had spoken in Latin while he slept. He often said the same words over and over like a mantra.

Derek used to be able to ignore him, choose to not focus on it and just fall asleep to the sound of Stiles’ heartbeat downstairs. 

But it became more and more distressing to hear these words, feel them sparking electricity through him, keeping him awake and not knowing what they meant. Derek needed to know why Stiles was saying so many things. 

Stiles was a talker, there were often too many added words in the middle of one single thought but this was different. Derek could feel it wasn’t the same as all the silly digressions Stiles could make up while he was awake.

This was calling to Derek in a different kind of annoyance that he needed to put an end to.

“Fucking hell,” Derek groaned, throwing the sheets off of him and getting up. 

There had to be some Latin books somewhere downstairs. Derek’s library had slowly but surely turned into Stiles’ personal storage for magic and spell books. It sometimes felt like Stiles had moved in. His books were here, his dirty clothes were in Derek’s hamper, his favorite foods were in Derek’s fridge. Derek didn’t know when it happened.

But the books were here, and that could be useful now. There had to be something Derek could learn from them. 

He slowly made his way down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as he could. 

Stiles was still mumbling words. Derek couldn’t take it anymore. He had to put a stop to all this nonsense.

“Derek…” 

Derek's heart stopped as he turned toward the couch. Stiles’ eyes were still closed, mouth slack. Still very much asleep. 

His voice was a whisper, pitched so low and soft that it was difficult to make out the words that followed even for Derek and his super hearing. 

Derek didn’t dare move for a while, he just watched Stiles, watched the slow rise and fall of his chest. 

  
  


_“Ego sum tecum.”_

Derek had to just breathe for a moment. He couldn’t explain why all he could feel was his heart vibrating, trying to twist out of his chest. It was stupid because it was just Stiles, Stiles being Stiles and talking, not knowing how to shut up even in his sleep, even in different languages, he just had to say words. 

Words that somehow found their way into Derek’s soul and made him feel foreign things. 

Derek got to the bookcase and grabbed the _Latin for Dummies_ book that Stiles had first bought when Deaton told him that he would need to be fluent in an ancient language in order to understand what he was doing with his spell work. Obviously, Stiles had found it necessary to make everybody suffer through that stage of his life. They were all traumatized by Latin conjugation. Derek had never imagined he would willingly pick up a Latin book himself after that.

He had been there through all of Stiles’ training. Deaton had said it wasn’t necessary, that an alpha didn’t have to be there and sit through a spark’s training. Derek knew it deep down, but he couldn’t help it. He just needed to be there, be close, see the look on Stiles’ face when he said the words just right and the spells worked and the effects were everything he had hoped. 

The damn look on Stiles’ face felt like Derek had won. He didn’t know what but he had won, maybe everything on that one instant. 

So yeah, Latin wasn’t that foreign but he had never needed to know any specifics until now. 

He didn’t need conjugation, he only needed a dictionary, some vocabulary to pick up the meaning of Stiles’ words in the larger sense. There had to be a reason why the words felt the way they did.

Some soft noise fell out of Stiles’ open mouth. His voice was barely audible.

  
  


_“Omnia vincit amor.”_

Amor? Amor… That was a word Derek knew. Shit. What was Stiles talking about?

Derek’s fingers twitched with the sudden need to touch. He frowned but still his feet moved on their own and brought him a step closed to the couch. He was so unfocused he even managed to bump into the standing lamp near the bookshelf. The metallic foot banged and rolled slightly as it found balance again. 

Stiles stirred, letting out a choked snore, licking lips with a wet and ungraceful sound that Derek couldn’t get out of his head.

Stiles made a very intimate sound, a small moan that should feel so suffocating to Derek but did. It did take his breath away. 

Amor. What was it about amor? Derek wouldn’t get his answers from the dumb book. 

“Stiles?” he asked tentatively.

“Uhnggh,” Stiles grumbled. 

It wasn’t cute, it wasn’t endearing. Derek should roll his eyes and not smile but his body wasn’t responding to him.

“Stiles,” Derek sat down on the couch by Stiles’ feet. 

Stiles nestled closer, mumbling something about _so comfy, so soft_.

“Stiles,” Derek put a hand on his ankle, trying to actually wake him up now.

Some part of him wanted to ignore it again, wanted him to walk up the stairs and pretend he hadn’t heard, or torture him with the idea that Stiles could have “amor” feelings for someone that wasn’t him.

He took in a shaky breath. It somehow felt right. Now that his hand was touching Stiles, rubbing soft circles on the skin of his ankle, a little up his calf. Derek felt better, calmer.

Maybe Stiles and all of his words had been right all along. It was never good to keep everything bottled up inside. It never felt great to be always brimming with all the fears and all the words left unsaid and unthought. 

Stiles was right. 

_“In Perpetuum et Unum Diem.”_

“Stiles,” Derek tried again.

“Uh?” Stiles finally opened his eyes. 

“You were - talking,” Derek said as a way of explaining something that didn’t need explaining. 

“Sorry…” Stiles murmured, not completely awake. His face was radiant as he looked at Derek, rested, relaxed, and looking at Derek like just seeing him was a completely normal thing, not surprising at all. His heartbeat didn’t even spike. Stiles felt safe.

“It’s fine,” Derek felt completely fine now. “It’s fine.”

He dislodged himself from the couch, got up.

“Hmm?” Stiles’ eyes followed the movement, watched as Derek stepped a little closer.

“It’s just -” Derek was going to say it. “Just…”

Stiles looked up and stayed silent, now he was silent, as Derek softly caressed his cheek and hair with his fingertips. 

“I love you,” Derek whispered and leaned down to kiss his forehead. 

“I love you too,” Stiles smiled, the next second, he was asleep again.

  
  
  


*

_“Sapere aude.” -_ dare to know

_“Semper ad meliora.”_ \- always toward better things

_“Ego sum tecum.”_ \- I am with you

_“Omnia vincit amor.” -_ Love conquers all

_“In Perpetuum et Unum Diem.” -_ Forever and a day


End file.
